Not everyone—actually, it sounds more like not anyone—enjoyed this weekend's White House Correspondent's Association dinner. But Christopher Hitchens was particularly displeased. As David Carr notes, Hitch cut out early, declaring that:

"The event was disgraceful, so lame and mediocre that it is beyond parody," he said later. "It is impossible to decide which is more offensive: the president fawning over the press or the press fawning over the president. It expresses everything that the public means when they talk about inside-the-Beltway and access journalism."

Hitchens then returned to the comfort of his home, where he mingled with guests such as presidential aspirant Fred Thompson, "British Ambassador David Manning and his novelist wife Lady Manning; NBC's Andrea Mitchell; Council on Foreign Relations Chief Richard Haass; embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz; and a slew of bold-faced names from the world of journalism." Also a slew of Timesfolk (Carr, Dean Baquet, Richard Berke, Adam Nagourney) and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. But we're sure there was no access, inside-the-Beltwayism, or fawning. —balk